Electronic waybill cuts costs significantly

In line with its mission to improve efficiency and help reduce logistics costs, software provider ShipShape recently launched an electronic airwaybill enabling forwarders to submit information electronically to the airlines in the same way as they EDI their bills of entry to Customs. “This results in significant cost savings for the client since the airline generally waives the cost for manual capture or reduces it significantly,” says ShipShape general manager and system architect J-L Koekemoer. “Technically this has been possible for some time, but in South Africa the concept has not been widely embraced,” he said. “Apart from the time-saving, there’s a big benefit in terms of accuracy, with many countries demanding advance notification of cargo on board for security reasons.” There are also downstream benefits of electronic submission in terms of the tracking information that is pushed through to the client, says Koekemoer. “The airlines will send back in real time the scheduled, estimated and actual departure of the aircraft, the number of pieces handed to the airline, what is loaded and if cargo is bumped off the flight. “This is information that was previously followed up manually or through a link to the website. It’s now pushed through automatically, which is a big advantage for the forwarder and his client.” And according to Koekemoer, it’s been highly beneficial for consolidators who handle high volumes of shipments. ShipShape has been involved in several other functional upgrades in recent months, notably a far superior delay notification. “It was motivated by almost two weeks of unforeseen delays related to Sars and Telkom issues last month. As a result we built in an additional number of automated monitoring processes to provide customers with earlier notification of delays based on the premise that the sooner you are aware of a problem the sooner you can introduce interventions.” One of the next big things on the Customs Modernisation agenda – and one which Koekemoer believes will bring huge benefits to service providers and their customers – is the new tariff management system (TMS), effectively a revision of the old tariff book. “The intention is that it will allow us to get more data out of the tariff book – from VAT indicators to permit requirements and additional statistical codes which we have historically had to source from disparate sources and combine in our systems. “It’s a development that will impact positively for all concerned.” And after what Koekemoer describes as a year of steady growth for the company, he’s optimistic about more of the same for the year ahead. CAPTION J-L Koekemoer … ‘a year of steady growth.